This article discusses legal, economic and political aspects of the German compulsory military service. We argue that Germany should introduce a professional army because it is more efficient and less prone to cause problems with vertical and horizontal tax equity. In addition most of the...

Although in Germany, there is a regular age of school entry, some children start school later than usual and some children start ahead of schedule. While there has been some decrease in delayed school entries in the last years, the rate of premature school entry has increased substantially....

Anlässlich der Urteilsverkündung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zur Rechtmäßigkeit der Wehrpflicht im März dieses Jahres ist die Diskussion um die zukünftige Gestaltung der Bundeswehr erneut Verletzung der Wehrgerechtigkeit das am häufigsten genannte Argument, das gegen die Beibehaltung...

According to sociological theories on educational choice, risk aversion is the main driving force for class-specific educational decisions. Families from upper social classes have to opt for the academically most demanding, long-lasting courses to avoid an intergenerational status loss. Families...

We compare large inter vivos transfers to bequests using retrospectively surveyed event history data from the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP). We find the chances of receiving gifts and bequests to depend strongly on the socio-economic position of the parents and on the number of...

This research investigates how family events in adult children's lives influence the timing of their parents' financial transfers. We draw on retrospective data collected by the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and use event history models to study the effects of marriage, divorce, and...

The impact of parents' education and social position on their children's educational career is very well known for Germany. However, there is little research on the influence of parental income. The costs of longer-lasting school tracks and the financial opportunities of the parents are crucial...

Die Ableistung eines Wehr- oder Zivildienstes kann als "Naturalsteuer" interpretiert werden. Folglich lässt sich die praktizierte Heranziehung zu einem dieser Dienste nach Kriterien der Steuergerechtigkeit beurteilen. Seit Einführung der Wehrpflicht in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland im Jahre...